by Neeraj Chauhan
Since early Nineties, Lashkar has been pushing terrorists into India from jihad launch pads in Pakistan. Earlier, its focus was Kashmir. Later, it became the arm of Islamabad's state-sponsored terrorism. From Red Fort attack in 2000 and Parliament strike in 2001 to Mumbai attacks in 2008, all bore the imprint of Lashkar-e-Taiba. ....
by The Indian Express
Uncovering what they said was a Lashkar-e-Toiba plot to strike Delhi, police on Thursday arrested a man from Jharkhand, taking to three the number of those apprehended. A search is on for a fourth man said to be involved in the terror plot. ....
by Shoaib Ahmed
Congress MLA Kripashankar Singh had to step down from the post of Mumbai Pradesh Congress chief after an indictment from the Bombay High Court in disproportionate assets case. But for someone who began his life in Mumbai in 1973 as a vegetable seller, it's perhaps an incredible rags to riches tale. ....
by Shubhajit Roy
A meeting of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and a senior official from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) with a visiting youth delegation from China was cancelled recently after the Chinese embassy asked the South Block to intervene. The Indian government was not keen to call off the appointments as it wanted to showcase Indian elections and the top rights body, sources told The Indian Express. ....
by Swapan Dasgupta
It may sound callous, but there was something patently disgusting about the way the media and activists colluded to turn a grim 10th anniversary of the 2002 Gujarat riots into a celebration of victimhood. From star anchors rushing to Ahmedabad to hug victims to the overuse of the photograph of the unfortunate Qutubuddin Ansari pleading for his life, every tear-jerking potential was cynically exploited. ....
by Manoj Prasad
Though they called it ‘Kashmir House’, the two-storey structure in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, was Farukh Ahmad Malik and wife Farhat’s bid to provide their children a home as distant as possible from the militancy in J&K. A few days ago, their old world collided with the new as son Ahtesham Malik and cousin Tauseef Ahmad Pir were arrested for alleged links with the Lashkar-e-Toiba, and for planning to set off blasts in Delhi. ....
by M. G. Warrier
In early 1970s, owning a two-wheeler in Trivandrum was a milestone in a middle class family's growth trajectory. Availing myself of a two-wheeler loan from my employer, I too became a proud owner of a ‘second-hand' Lambretta purchased from my friend who moved to another city on transfer. At that time, the waiting period to get a new scooter was two to three years after booking. ....
by IBNLive.com
Sam Singh, a 78-year-old former business tycoon, decided to give up his cushy lifestyle to transform the lives of more that 40,000 girls with a simple mantra - Rs 10 a day and a cycle in return for attending school. ....
by The Pioneer
Indian Army chief General V.K. Singh Sunday opened the first Rashtra Mandir, dedicated to freedom fighters and social workers, at the Mankameshwar temple complex here. ....
by M. Kasinath Balaji, S. V. Jinna
The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu has become part of the regular news in the recent past. Safety of the public has been given the utmost priority at all stages of the KKNPP construction, including from the selection of the site, designing the processes, and erection of the plant buildings and equipment. ....
by Vasudha Venugopal
She has been an inspiration to many customers who never thought a woman could deliver pizzas. She has evoked admiration from many petrol bunk owners because she would insist on working night shifts. ....
by The Times of India
Look who we voted for! Of the 40 victorious candidates who won in the March 3 election to become members of the Goa legislative assembly, 12 have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits. Twelve out of 40 means 30% of our legislators have criminal cases against them. ....
by Manas Dasgupta
It was a different kind of festival the Wadia village in north Gujarat celebrated on Sunday. For the first time, almost the entire village participated in a mass marriage celebration where eight girls were married and 12 more engaged. ....
by Brij Khandelwal
Necessity is the mother of invention. When the war against pollution to save the Taj Mahal affected many factories and jobs here in the 1990s, hundreds of men and women took to repairing and facelifting old saris. Now it has turned into a booming industry and their skills are in high demand. ....
by Amitabh Sinha
Even as it claimed that it would address the concerns of the states on the National Counter-terrorism Centre (NCTC), the centre today told top officials of state governments to avoid acting as “stenographers” of their political masters in objecting to this anti-terror body. ....
by The Indian Express
The National Investigation Agency told a court today that terrorists exploded a bomb in the Delhi High Court last year with the sole aim to get Parliament attacker Afzal Guru's death sentence commuted. ....
by Izharul Haq
A growing number of religious luminaries who exhort the Muslim masses to shun everything Western are settling in the same West. Allama Tahirul Qadri is headquartered in Canada. Dr Farhat Hashmi of Al-Huda fame has been pleading with the Canadian judiciary to enable her to make that “non-Muslim” country her new home.....
by J Gopikrishnan
In the midst of political turmoil over the railway fare hike, an intense fight is going on in higher echelons of bureaucracy over the selection of bidders for two locomotive factories that then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav had announced for his parliamentary constituency in Bihar in 2009. ....
by Rediff.com
Rajeev Srinivasan on why Narendra Modi is a threat to the establishment because he overturns many of the convenient myths they propagate. ....
by Claude Arpi
China has dropped all pretences and is now brazenly suppressing the severely restricted rights of Tibetans. This doesn’t augur well. ....
by Smita Nair
From canteen manager Pillai battling with the demands of 600 hungry cadets to the tussle between every bunch of 50 boys at the Sainik School restroom to finish their chores within 15 minutes - there were eight bathrooms between them - and from the daily exercise regimen to the strategy they drew up to steal coconuts from trees in the middle of the night without getting caught, retired Navy officer Ramesh Babu has brought it all alive. ....
by Ravish Tiwari
The International Council of Jurists yesterday announced the International Jurists Award, 2012, for Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for his “unflinching contribution to the advancement of the bar and the bench”, and “support to the development of the legal fraternity (which) is unparalleled in the world”. ....
by The Indian Express
The Supreme Court on Friday decided to take a closer look at the “blessings” given by former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to the transfer of 20 acres of government land to filmmaker Subhash Ghai to start Whistling Woods institute. ....
by P. Sudhakar
Ajit Thakur, 49, Additional Chief Engineer (Technical), Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, proudly shows off the wrist watch presented to him by his employer for having put in 25 years of service. ....
by Vivek Gumaste
The polemics emanating from the IPL affront to Pakistani cricketers again brings to the fore the confused morass that is the Indian psyche; a jumble of misplaced morality and mawkish sentimentalism that revels in sadomasochistic self doubt and translates into a gibberish that has no functional value. ....
by Rahul Datta & Mohit Kandhari
Pakistan-backed militants are determined to disturb peace prevailing in Jammu & Kashmir for the last one year by stepping up smuggling of arms & ammunition and narcotic drugs through trucks coming to India from across the Line of Control (LoC). ....
by Rediff.com
Controversial social activist Swami Agnivesh has come under fire yet again. Arya Samaj leaders and the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Foundation, a Delhi-based charitable trust has accused him of land grabbing, non-payment of rent for 25 years and spreading anti-Hindu sentiments. ....
by Debabrata Mohanty
Even as negotiations were on to secure the release of the two Italians abducted in Kandhamal 10 days ago, the Maoists struck again in Koraput early this morning, abducting BJD legislator Jhina Hikaka, a first-time tribal MLA from Koya community representing Laxmipur constituency which includes the Maoist bastion of Narayanpatna. ....
by Debabrata Mohanty
In his first Assembly elections in 2009, Jhina Hikaka, contesting on a BJD ticket, managed to wrest the Congress stronghold of Laxmipur in Koraput despite having joined politics just a few years back. Known to be among the few tribal politicians popular with their electorate, Hikaka was earlier a contractual employee with the state water resources department. ....
by Ziauddin Sardar
Around 300 years ago, the bazaars of the Middle East were overflowing with luxury goods. The commercial centres of the region attracted all variety of fortune seekers, speaking numerous languages. There was nothing to indicate that the region would not continue to be economically prosperous. But then the trajectory changed. The Middle East nosedived into a downward spiral of underdevelopment. So what went wrong? ....
by The Tribune India
Five hundred Pakistani religious scholars have warned that anyone who expresses grief over the assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer who opposed the country's blasphemy law could suffer the same fate. ....
by Hari Om
Pakistan observes February 5 every year as the “Kashmir Solidarity Day” and reiterates its stand that “Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory” and that the Indian presence in this part of the state is “illegal and against the people’s will”. Pakistan has been observing this day as “Kashmir Solidarity Day” since 1990 to highlight the “Kashmir issue”. ....
by S Gurumurthy
Maqbool Fida Husain and Salman Rushdie are a telling comparison and contrast to capture the true character of secular India. Both are Muslims by birth. Both were born in colonial India’s Bombay Presidency. Husain, some 32 years when Rushdie was a child, died last year. Husain was an artist. Rushdie is a writer. Both had become famous, globally — Husain through his paintings and Rushdie through his writings. ....
by M R Venkatesh
The US Department of Justise defines white collar crimes as economic offenses that constitute those classes of non-violent but illegal activities which principally involve traditional notions of deceit, deception, concealment, manipulation, breach of trust, subterfuge or illegal circumvention. ....
by Ralph Peters
Violent fanatical movements burn out. Some take longer to fade than others, but none endure. Inevitably, their ever-increasing excesses take the gravest toll among their own kind, alienating the population from which they demand support. ....
by Dharmanext.blogspot.in
Most people in India have a positive impression about Medha Patkar. Is she not the secular activist who takes on big business, fights for preserving India’s greenery and defends the poor and downtrodden? ....
by Dirgha Raj Prasai
According to tradition, Shiva, Pashupatinath, spent his most of his time on the top of holy Kailas Mansarovar, practicing yogic austerities, joy and love with his divine consort Parvati. Lake Mansarovar and mount Kailas are the soul of all OM followers in the world. ....
by Ashok Singhal
The Vishva Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) condemns in the strongest terms the acts of terrorism against Israeli Embassy personnel and workers, Israeli citizens and Jews in several countries including Bharat, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Thailand. The VHP and the Hindu world can very much understand and empathise with the distress of your people as Hindus themselves have been the worst victims of Jihadi terrorism. ....
by Inder Malhotra
So painful, indeed traumatic, is the story of the 1962 border war with China that while winding it up, the spotlight needs to be turned on whatever little did go right amidst the overwhelming disaster when almost everything else went unbelievably wrong. ....
by Seema Mustafa
The government of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh will have to crawl on bended knees to appease the angry people of India. Otherwise, it can count its days in office, with each session of Parliament becoming a test for survival ....
by Ramtanu Maitra
The Week magazine, based in Kerala, India, came out recently with a comprehensive report on the massive arms seizure in Chittagong, Bangladesh, in 2004 made by two Bangladeshi policemen. The Week claimed it had unearthed official records on the case in India and Bangladesh, and that it had exclusive access to the 3,500-page Chittagong case diary. ....
by R Kashyap
Naxalism is a stifling political ideology. It rejects, in fact challenges, the nation’s socio-economic system and refuses to engage with the polity. It ravages the life of common people in Naxal-affected areas. ....
by Hindustan Times
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday said that Pakistan has a key role to play in his government's peace talks with the Taliban because the militant group operates from there. ....
by Shafiq Alam
When Bangladesh became an independent nation after a bloody nine month battle with Pakistan that ended 40 years ago Friday, Narayan Chandra Das, a Bengali Hindu, had high hopes for his new country. ....
by Prem Shankar Jha
When Union minister Sharad Pawar was slapped by an obviously unbalanced youth, Anna Hazare passed an acerbic comment, “why just one slap?” As it always happens, he was roundly condemned by the establishment for making a remark in bad taste. ....
by R Jagannathan
Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Dalit followers have done him a great disservice. They have taken over a National Textile Corporation mill in Mumbai—Indu Mill—because they want to convert it into a memorial for him. In doing so, they have adopted the “grammar of anarchy” that Ambedkar abhorred. ....
by Nancy Kaul
In a major victory for Hindu activists, the Delhi High Court on Dec. 21 granted a stay order against the deportation of 151 Pakistani Hindu nationals who arrived in the capital in September and sought asylum on grounds of religious persecution and oppression in Pakistan. ....
by Vinod Kumar
Are government of India policies the cause of Muslim backwardness? No sooner did Imam Ahmad Bukhari took the mantle of Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid of Delhi, he raised the Muslim bogey -- "Muslims (in India) have been reduced to a pitiable condition". ....
by Venky Vembu
The virtue of making donations of food (or annadhanam) to the poor has always been upheld in scriptural parables and in popular culture as worthy of emulation. It has traditionally been pitched as an effective way for the wealthy, even those lacking in empathy towards those less privileged than themselves, to earn karmic brownie points. ....
by Dipali Rastogi
This summer, during our mid-service training programme at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, a poignant lecture by N.C. Saxena, member of the National Advisory Council, had just ended. ....
by Mukesh Ranjan
Coming down heavily on the UPA Government at the Centre over giving 4.5 per cent reservations to the Muslims from the quota for Other Backward Classes, former Deputy Chief Minister and BJP MLA Raghuwar Das on Saturday termed quotas on religious ground "unconstitutional" and threatened an agitation against the move. ....
by R Jagannathan
Despite the objections of many in the UPA cabinet and the advice of economists, Sonia Gandhi is shoving the Food Security Bill down our throats. ....
by The Pioneer
2011 will be best remembered as the year of mass uprising against corruption in India. The year started with nationwide raids by the CBI on the 2G Spectrum Scam culprits and the arrest of tainted former Telecom Minister A Raja and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi, when caught with crystal clear evidence. ....
by Kanchan Gupta
Nothing about what the Congress does is accidental; no two actions of this party are coincidental. Dishonesty, deceit and deception are the three strands of the Congress’s DNA ....
by Rajinder Puri
There are several examples of the political elite’s collective insanity but the huge debate sparked by the proposed reservation for minorities takes the cake. The UPA government on the eve of the assembly elections announced a sub-quota for the minorities within the existing quota of reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs). ....
by Dhananjay Mahapatra
The Supreme Court has rejected a five-decade-old perception built on the basis of several reports of Commissions of Inquiry that during communal violence the police were generally biased against minority community and arrested the victims instead of the assailants. ....
by The Economic Times
BJP on Thursday asked Congress not to fake outrage over the defeat of the bill to grant constitutional status to Lokpal and acknowledge that poor floor-management led to the embarrassment for the government. ....
by Madhuparna Das
The last two years have witnessed a sudden spurt in the number of Chinese “journalists” and “research scholars” coming to Kolkata and the eastern region of the country. ....
by Patrick de Jacquelot / Les Echos / Worldcrunch
This post is in partnership with Worldcrunch, a new global-news site that translates stories of note in foreign languages into English. The article below was originally published in Les Echos. ....
by Dr Jay Dubashi
Until recently, I used to think that NGO was the name of a sports car made in Japan or Korea for use on Indian roads. It never struck me NGO could be some kind of a racket to make money without actually doing anything worthwhile, the sort of thing some of us are very good at, particularly those with contacts with foreign agencies, who are suckers for this kind of thing. ....
by Ashok Singhal
The Int'L President of Vishva Hindu Parishad Sri Ashok Singhal told the media that a few organizations and some people entrenched in the central government were exerting acute pulls and pressures to get the Communal Violence Bill 2011 passed in the Parliament as a law at the earliest. ....
by P.N. Benjamin
Freedom of Religion Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 22, 1978, seeks "to forbid conversions from one religion to another by the use of force or inducement or deceit or by any fraudulent means." ....
by Amarnath K. Menon
He will travel for three days every week. He wants to build the organisation from the grassroots up so that it is a formidable force by 2014-its golden jubilee year, by meeting cadres, recruiting people and raising finances. Meet the new Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) chief Gullampalli Raghava Reddy, 55, who took over the reins from ailing octogenarian Ashok Singhal, the organisation's face for the past nine years. ....
by Inder Malhotra
In two earlier articles in this series (‘Dialogue of the deaf’, IE, January 22, 2010) and ‘Immoveable objects”, IE, February 5, 2010), I have given as many dreary details as possible of the failed Swaran Singh-Bhutto “talkathon” that began in Rawalpindi on December 26, 1962 and collapsed in New Delhi on May 16, 1963. ....
by Outlook
“Maj Iqbal was my handler. He and Lt Col Hamza listened to my plan for more than two hours. The Lt Col assured me of all financial help.” ....
by Chandrani Banerjee
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), India’s premier agency to investigate terrorist-related cases which was set up in December 2008, interrogated David Coleman Headley, one of the prime accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, between June 3 and June 9, 2010. ....
by Lola Nayar
“There are many households in our village who have NREGA cards but have not sought work for over two years,” says 32-year-old Umesh Kumar, gram pradhan of Bhainswal village, in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. In fact, Kumar recounts having to actually go around persuading people to come for work “whenever we get projects for implementation under NREGA”. ....
by Chandrani Banerjee
While other children would playfully latch on to each other and run in circles as a chugging human train, little Laxmi Lakda had already made up her mind: she would drive a real train someday. It was an unusual career choice, but this feisty lady from Jharkhand kept her dream right on track. ....
by Sheetal
I recently returned from an amazing five days in sunny Buenos Aires. Both the city and its denizens are charming, warm, and welcoming. As my husband and I strolled through the various neighborhoods, we found that Buenos Aires magically blended the best of Paris, Barcelona, Athens, and Mumbai. ....
by Suhag A. Shukla, Esq.
Yoga can wreck your body and make you fat -- at least according to New York Times science writer William Broad. Between Maureen Dowd's column back in October, "How Garbo Learned to Stand on Her Head," on Broad's upcoming book, "The Science of Yoga: The Myths and the Rewards," and Broad's own piece last week, "How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body," Broad has taken up prime journalistic real estate to grind his axe with yoga. ....
by David
The New York Times printed a controversial article last week about yoga and injuries. Various yoga teachers have penned responses, but I’ve yet to see one that I find fully satisfying (the one that came closest was by Michael Taylor of Strala Yoga, and I also enjoyed Eddie Stern's witty riposte). ....
by Sheetal
I’d like to thank the The New York Times for continuing to fuel the relevancy of the Hindu American Foundation’s Take Back Yoga campaign. The latest piece in the Times Magazine, “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body” by William Broad, just adds more fodder to the campaign. ....
by Pervez Hoodbhoy
Governor Salmaan Taseer died at the hands of a religious fanatic on January 4 last year. Fearlessly championing a deeply unpopular cause, this brave man had sought to revisit the country’s blasphemy law which, as he saw it, was yet another means of intimidating Pakistan’s embattled religious minorities. ....
by Minxin Pei
Most of the world rejoiced when the Soviet Union disintegrated two decades ago. But in Beijing, the mood was considerably darker. The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which itself barely survived the crisis of Tienanmen in the spring of 1989, was apparently grief-stricken. ....
by Drishtikone
As we speak, there is a very fundamental flaw in India’s Governance. The Head of the Executive branch of this Parliamentary Democracy has never been elected by any one to any constituency by vote. Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India is not an elected member. ....
by R. Upadhyay
The recent offer of the UPA coalition to reserve 4.5 % seats for minorities within the OBC quota of 27% in Government jobs has once again reminded the people the evil effects of vote bank politics. ....
by The Times of India
Home minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said the September 2008 Batla House gun battle with suspected terrorists was genuine and there was "no scope for re-opening the matter". ....
by The Times of India
Despite stiff opposition to the 'Surya Namaskar' exercise, a record number of 50 lakh students across Madhya Pradesh today took part in it, with state chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan leading from the front. ....
by The Times of India
That the EC's issued a notice to Congress leader Salman Khurshid for promising minority sub-quotas during poll campaigning in UP comes as no surprise. Across the spectrum, political parties in the state are engaged in competitive electoral mobilisation along caste and religious lines. The Congress had proposed a 4.5% sub-quota for minorities within the existing OBC quota. ....
by The Indian Express
If the Batla House encounter continues to spark confusion, noise and controversy, it is in no small measure due to the Congress. The facts of the incident on that day in New Delhi’s Jamia Nagar, September 2008, in which two suspected terrorists and a police officer were killed, are mired in a dispute that’s been propped up by, among others, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. ....
by Swami Vivekananda
In reading the Bhagwad Gita, many in western countries may have felt astonished at the second chapter, wherein Sri Krishna calls Arjuna a hypocrite and a coward because of his refusal to fight, or offer resistance, on account of his adversaries being his friends and relatives, making the plea that non-resistance was the highest ideal of love. This is a great lesson for us all to learn, that in all matters the two extremes are alike. ....
by Rediff.com
Swami Vivekananda's famous speech in Chicago at the Parliament of Religions played a key role in spreading Hindu philosophy in the West. ....
by Indrajit Hazra
Over a fabulous spread of home-made vegetarian food, I was listening to Rajan Mehra, chairman, Rupa Publications Group, telling me about, what he considers to be “the most important publication” of his career. Coming from a publishing house that has made its mark — and anchors its business — by publishing best-selling ‘chatpata’ books by writers that most famously include Chetan Bhagat, the 11-volume, 7,086-page Encyclopedia of Hinduism, is clearly a radical departure. ....
by Shashi Shekhar
The Congress’s communal brinkmanship and the Election Commission’s over-zealous conduct have made the contentious issue of a Muslim sub-quota the centerpiece of public debate in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. The issue has effectively shut out debate on everything else to the point where it becomes necessary to ask if the Uttar Pradesh poll is now a referendum on this single issue. ....
by Divya Talwar
The use of Sharia, or Islamic religious law, is growing in Britain, with thousands of Muslims using it to settle disputes each year, but women's groups and some others are objecting. ....
by Meritxell Mir
A Swiss prosecutor has described as a "veritable slaughter" the vicious axe murder of a 16-year-old girl by her 53-year-old Pakistani father, who believed his daughter had tarnished her family's honour. ....
by Asit Jolly
The famed Sufi tradition and spirit of Kashmiriyat in the Valley, already ravaged by decades of insurgency, faces a new challenge. Wahhabism, an austere, puritanical interpretation of Islam promoted by Saudi Arabia, is making deep inroads into Kashmir due to the efforts of the Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith, which calls itself a religious and welfare organisation. ....
by Daily News & Analysis
The Supreme Court has put the Home Ministry and Delhi police on alert saying if it’s found that the affidavit filed by them in the mid night swoop on Yoga guru Ramdev’s followers and attack on him in early June is misleading, it would initiate proceedings against the ministry and Union government. ....
by Salman Rashid
Every single Muslim in the subcontinent believes s/he is of Arab descent. If not direct Arab descent, then the illustrious ancestor had come from either Iran or Bukhara. Interestingly, the ancestor is always a great general or a saint. Never ever have we heard anyone boasting of an intellectual for a forebear. We hear of the progeny of savage robber kings, but there is no one who claims Abu Rehan Al-Beruni or Ibn Rushd as a distant sire. ....
by Chandrani Banerjee
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), India’s premier agency to investigate terrorist-related cases which was set up in December 2008, interrogated David Coleman Headley, one of the prime accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, between June 3 and June 9, 2010. ....
by Rediff.com
Swami Vivekananda's famous speech in Chicago at the Parliament of Religions played a key role in spreading Hindu philosophy in the West. ....
by Namrata Joshi
The house of Deborah Di Fiore, Sophia Edstrand and Nur Kaoukji takes your breath away. It is as though one of those charming artist studios in Monmartre has been relocated to Jaipur. Inside these bright pink and green walls are lamps in frames of bamboo latticework, an assortment of wooden tables and unusual glasses, and a splendid collection of trunks. ....
by The Indian Express
The Bangladesh army has foiled a plot by certain “religiously fanatic” serving and retired army officers to overthrow the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. ....
by The Indian Express
Dantewada’s bullet-riddled, violence-framed narrative is tragically familiar: the border town of Chhattisgarh that is caught in a long-drawn-out crossfire between Naxals and security forces, its people wracked by deprivation and illiteracy and pushed further into the margins. Turning that story around isn’t easy for the state — not exactly the most popular there — but someone is trying to make a difference. ....
by Virender Kumar
Last September, when the Samajwadi Party launched its UP election campaign, Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose government had been voted out in 2007 for letting loose “bullies” and “ruffians” in the state, put his son Akhilesh Yadav in the driver’s seat and withdrew into the background. ....
by The Times of India
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday said he feared trouble if controversial author Salman Rushdie attended the Jaipur Literary Festival. “A few Muslim organizations met me and have threatened to organize protests. Moreover, a breakdown of law and order is not ruled out,” he said, adding, “No state government will want a law and order situation. I have informed the Centre about the prevailing sentiments.” ....
by Dr Pravin Togadia
In 1947, Bharat became independent from the British but broken and looted. The same ordeal is hovering over Bharat now with Muslim Reservations. After 1947, 3 Crore Muslims stayed back in Bharat who rejecting family planning and common civil core increased their population to 15 crore now. ....
by Noha El-Hennawy
As the Muslim Brotherhood strives to project the image of a moderate and democratic political organization, a book featuring the angry account of a former member has hit the market. ....
by Compassdirect.org
Sudan’s Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowments has threatened to arrest church leaders if they carry out evangelistic activities and do not comply with an order for churches to provide their names and contact information, Christian sources said. ....
by Uday Mahurkar
For over two centuries now, a question that has defied an answer has been: what became of the Maratha soldiers who disappeared on January 14, 1761, after the third battle of Panipat? On the 250th anniversary of the great battle, there is finally an answer. ....
by The Indian Express
Certainly, the Union finance ministry should raise hard questions about large investments in any sector, especially given the state of the deficit. So nobody can fault it for questioning India’s ambitious Rs 65,000-crore military expansion plan, cleared in-principle by the PM last year. ....
by The Pioneer
While the Western discourse on human rights is individual-centric, the Indian model puts emphasis on one's duties rather than enjoyment of rights, says Ashok Vohra ....
by Rathin Das
A day after the Gujarat Government moved high court, seeking quashing of the Governor’s order to appoint retired Justice RA Mehta as Lokayukta, many questions have been raised on the whole episode. ....
by Swaraj Thapa
A day after NDTV journalist Pankaj Pachauri was brought in as communication adviser in the PMO, Harish Khare, media adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, stepped down from his post. ....
by Saba Imtiaz & Sameer Mandhro
Money, jobs and a debt-free life: It sounds like a sweet deal for many of the Hindu labourers in Matli, but it comes with strings attached — convert to Islam. ....
by B. Raman
It is learnt from reliable sources that the Bangladesh authorities suspect that the Hizbut-Tahrir (HT), Party of Liberation, banned in October 2009 had links with 16 middle-level officers of the Bangladesh Army involved in the plot to stage a coup against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which was discovered in December last. ....
by NDTV.com
Observing that Ayudha pooja is referable to reverence or respect given to objects through which a person performs his occupation, the Madras High Court has held that "showing respect to the place of work and the objects of work will in no way offend the feeling of others or offend secularism". ....
by A Subramani
Is conducting Ayudha Puja or Saraswathi Puja in government offices a non-secular activity deserving to be banned? 'No', the Madras high court has ruled. ....
by Ian Caleb
A MAN arrested in a police counter-terrorism operation told an officer he would “cut your head off and machine gun the lot of you”, a court has heard. ....
by Rajesh Kalra
On January 17, the Delhi High Court ruled that although the highly tom-tommed Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) used in our elections are NOT tamperproof, it is still not in a position to issue any directive to the Election Commission (EC). However, it added that since EVMs are the backbone of our election process, needful should be done to dispel doubts. ....
by Haroon Habib
Bangladesh is happy that its armed forces foiled an attempt to destabilise the elected government. But the extremist, religious ideologies which reportedly influenced the plot are a cause for serious concern. ....
by PN Benjamin
A retired judge of Karnataka High Court, M.F. Saldanha has recently said that Christians in Karnataka State are under an unprecedented wave of persecution. He has also termed Karnataka as “the Rogue State No.1”. Unfortunately for Saldanha, he himself admits that the State has not recorded any killing in this season of “persecution”. ....
by Sunday Times
Tolerance of Islamic vigilantism is helping to breed a new generation of terrorists in Indonesia, the International Crisis Group warned in a report Thursday. ....
by BBC News
A man who downloaded a recipe for the deadly poison ricin and documents about how to make bombs has been jailed for two years and three months. ....
by Barnabas Team
Opposition is mounting to the growing use of Islamic law to settle civil disputes in Britain as a Muslim campaigner backs a bill that aims to stop sharia councils from falsely claiming legal status England and Wales. ....
by Gilbert Kreijger
The Dutch minority government plans to ban Muslim face veils such as burqas and other forms of clothing that cover the face from next year. ....
by Swapan Dasgupta
The extent to which the discourse on the vexed issue of reservations has changed over the years is quite remarkable. When the Constitution was being framed, the remnants of the Muslim League argued that independent India should persist with the reservation of seats in legislatures for Muslims and other religious minorities. ....
by Esha Roy
Since the last Assembly elections, the Manipuri politician has only gotten richer, with those showing some of the highest growth in assets part of Chief Minister Ibobi Singh's cabinet. ..
by Milind Ghatwai
Holding that Gita contained philosophy and not religious teachings, the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Friday dismissed a petition challenging introduction of ‘Gita Sar’ (essence of Gita) in school curriculum. ...
by Kashmir Sentinel
My dear Lord Mountbatten, I have to inform your Excellency that a grave emergency has arisen in my State and request immediate assistance of your Government. ...
by Tavleen Singh
Last week in the Idea Exchange page opposite was the interview of a man who has been responsible for terminating a project that could have turned India into a hub for aluminum production and brought enormous prosperity to Orissa. ...